Hurricane Helene made its way through the state of Georgia throughout Thursday and into Friday morning. While the storm shifted and moved east of the local area, Columbus wasn’t fully unharmed by the effects of the storm.
A part of Sherri Priest’s house and a good portion of her yard on Forestside Drive are covered by a giant oak tree that fell Thursday night. Priest said she wasn’t home when the tree fell on her house, but her dogs were.
One of her dogs was in the kennel where the tree fell on the roof. Thankfully, the dog is alright, she said..
Priest said the experience has been “devastating.”
“The whole inside of my house is flooded,” Priest told the Ledger-Enquirer.
Priest said her homeowners insurance dropped her a few months ago because of low-lying limbs over her house. Those limbs were on the tree that fell.
“We had somebody planned to come out to cut it, but they had gotten too busy, and then this happened,” Priest said.
At the time she was interviewed, Priest’s dad and uncle were there with a chainsaw starting to clear parts of the tree.